Myanmar: Sham Democracy For The People

Myanmar's opposition movementis heavy on rhetoric and low on substance.

Riding on the back of the Obama Administration’s recent foreign policy ‘successes’, such as the extrajudicial execution of Muammar Gadhafi and the announcement of a permanent US military presence in Northern Australia, It appears yet another foreign funded opposition movement is gaining favorable momentum towards American interests. Although the countries newly elected civilian government has released thousands of political prisoners and made tremendous reforms towards political censorship in recent months, this will not be enough to appease the Western investors who have stood behind Myanmar’s highly touted and magnanimous opposition party.

While the majority of Americans may be unable to locate to Myanmar on a map, the US Government has spent millions training political dissidents and funding the countries opposition movement, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is currently on a landmark visit to Myanmar with a list of demands in hand. Ironically, while the US Senate moves on a bill allowing American citizens to be indefinitely detained in domestic detention centers, Clinton has come to Myanmar to trumpet human rights.

Myanmar’s opposition movement led by western educated Suu Kyi has been accredited by dozens of organizations and think tanks, instrumental in influencing American foreign policy. Suu Kyi received a standing ovation and unprecedented praise when she phoned into the 2011 Clinton Global Citizen Awards, an event sponsored by transnational corporations and lined with the despotic corporate-financier interests of Wall Street and the City of London.

Her campaign historically parallels other opposition movements, heavy in rhetoric and low on substance. Her movement’s credibility exists solely due to the corporate media’s portrayal of her as an unfettered “beacon of freedom”, comparable to the inspiring tale used to garner public support for Barack Obama during his electoral campaign. Although her brand may be easily recognizable, few have examined the policies of her party, The National League for Democracy.

The 1989 manifesto of her party (viewable here) is a document that essentially calls for transnational corporations and globalists to manage the innumerably vast supply of natural resources in her country and the abolition and privatization of all nationalized industries. A 2006 report released by Burma Campaign UK (viewable here) details the tremendous financing contributed by the federally supported National Endowment for Democracy and George Soros’s Open Society Institute.

The reality of the situation is that gaining a foothold in resource-rich Myanmar would reap exorbitant profits, a country on China’s doorstep. After decades of mismanagement, the government of Myanmar’s economic policy is finally beginning to breathe an air of coherency. Under the governance of Suu Kyi, one can expect only crony-capitalism of the looming Fortune 500, at it’s best.

As Clinton waddles around the capital of Naypyidaw with her security team and television crew, the government of Myanmar must remain vigilant in asserting its sovereignty to foreign powers. Due to the crippling effect of sanctions, which have blocked incoming medical aid and foreign trade, the government’s cooperation is a bullet that must be bitten. Lest we forget, Suu Kyi herself has called for these damaging sanctions to remain.